Immunological quantitation of rat and mouse thyroxine-binding globulins. Ontogenesis and sex-dependence of the circulating levels of the thyroxine-binding globulins

Adversity Considerations for Thyroid Follicular Cell Hypertrophy and Hyperplasia in Nonclinical Toxicity Studies: Results From the 6th ESTP International Expert Workshop

The European Society of Toxicologic Pathology organized an expert workshop in May 2018 to address adversity considerations related to thyroid follicular cell hypertrophy and/or hyperplasia (FCHH), which is a common finding in nonclinical toxicity studies that can have important implications for risk assessment of pharmaceuticals, food additives, and environmental chemicals. The broad goal of the workshop was to facilitate better alignment in toxicologic pathology and regulatory sciences on how to determine adversity of FCHH. Key objectives were to describe common mechanisms leading to thyroid FCHH and potential functional consequences; provide working criteria to assess adversity of FCHH in context of associated findings; and describe additional methods and experimental data that may influence adversity determinations. The workshop panel was comprised of representatives from the European Union, Japan, and the United States. Participants shared case examples illustrating issues related to adversity assessments of thyroid changes. Provided here are summary discussions, key case presentations, and panel recommendations. This information should increase consistency in the interpretation of adverse changes in the thyroid based on pathology findings in nonclinical toxicity studies, help integrate new types of biomarker data into the review process, and facilitate a more systematic approach to communicating adversity determinations in toxicology reports.

Hydrophilic Small Molecules That Harness Transthyretin To Enhance the Safety and Efficacy of Targeted Chemotherapeutic Agents

The hydrophobicity of many chemotherapeutic agents usually results in their nonselective passive distribution into healthy cells and organs causing collateral toxicity. Ligand-targeted drugs (LTDs) are a promising class of targeted anticancer agents. The hydrophilicity of the targeting ligands in LTDs limits its nonselective passive tissue distribution and toxicity to healthy cells. In addition, the small size of LTDs allows for better tumor penetration, especially in the case of solid tumors. However, the short circulation half-life of LTDs, due to their hydrophilicity and small size, remains a significant challenge for achieving their full therapeutic potential. Therefore, extending the circulation half-life of targeted chemotherapeutic agents while maintaining their hydrophilicity and small size will represent a significant advance toward effective and safe cancer treatment. Here, we present a new approach for enhancing the safety and efficacy of targeted chemotherapeutic agents. By endowing hydrophobic chemotherapeutic agents with a targeting moiety and a hydrophilic small molecule that binds reversibly to the serum protein transthyretin, we generated small hydrophilic drug conjugates that displayed enhanced circulation half-life in rodents and selectivity to cancer cells. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a successful approach that maintains the small size and hydrophilicity of targeted anticancer agents containing hydrophobic payloads while at the same time extending their circulation half-life. This was demonstrated by the superior in vivo efficacy and lower toxicity of our conjugates in xenograft mouse models of metastatic prostate cancer.

Sex-specific phenotypes of hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism in aged mice

Background

Sex and age play a role in the prevalence of thyroid dysfunction (TD), but their interrelationship for manifestation of hyper- and hypothyroidism is still not well understood. Using a murine model, we asked whether sex impacts the phenotypes of hyper- and hypothyroidism at two life stages.

Methods

Hyper- and hypothyroidism were induced by i.p. T4 or MMI/ClO₄-/LoI treatment over 7 weeks in 12- and 20-months-old female and male C57BL/6N mice. Control animals underwent PBS treatment (n = 7–11 animals/sex/treatment). Animals were investigated for impact of sex on body weight, food and water intake, body temperature, heart rate, behaviour (locomotor activity, motor coordination and strength) and serum thyroid hormone (TH) status.

Results

Distinct sex impact was found in eu- and hyperthyroid mice, while phenotypic traits of hypothyroidism were similar in male and female mice. No sex difference was found in TH status of euthyroid mice; however, T4 treatment resulted in twofold higher TT4, FT4 and FT3 serum concentrations in adult and old females compared to male animals. Hyperthyroid females consistently showed higher locomotor activity and better coordination but more impairment of muscle function by TH excess at adult age. Importantly and in contrast to male mice, adult and old hyperthyroid female mice showed increased body weight. Higher body temperature in female mice was confirmed in all age groups. No sex impact was found on heart rate irrespective of TH status in adult and old mice.

Conclusions

By comparison of male and female mice with TD at two life stages, we found that sex modulates TH action in an organ- and function-specific manner. Sex differences were more pronounced under hyperthyroid conditions. Importantly, sex-specific differences in features of TD in adult and old mice were not conclusively explained by serum TH status in mice.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s13293-017-0159-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Sex, genetics, and the control of thyroxine and thyrotropin in mice

BACKGROUND

Previously, we studied the genetic basis for variability in total thyroxine (TT4) as part of investigating induced Graves' hyperthyroidism in panels of genetically diverse recombinant inbred (RI) mice. Because Graves' disease occurs predominantly in women, we used female mice. A limitation of this approach is that thyrotropin (TSH) is undetectable by some assays in most female mice.

METHOD

Variation in levels of serum TSH, TT4, and free thyroxine (FT4) was measured in males from three related RI families (CXB, BXH, and AXBXA) followed by quantitative genetic analysis and mapping of these traits.

RESULTS

In general, TSH levels were higher in males than females. FT4 levels were also higher in males than in females, but TT4 sex differences were absent or inconsistent. Chromosomal linkage was only observed for TSH in BXH males and for FT4 in AXBXA males. Different chromosomes were linked to TT4 in males of the three RI sets. The most striking finding came from genetic linkages in males versus our previous data for females. TT4 was linked to the same chromosomal loci in CXB males and females. In contrast, TT4, FT4, and TSH were linked to different "sex-specific chromosomes" in AXBXA and BXH families.

CONCLUSIONS

In three RI mouse families, TSH and FT4 were significantly higher in males than females. Linkage analysis revealed chromosomal overlap for TT4 in males and females for one RI set but striking sex differences for TT4, FT4, and TSH linkage in two RI sets. Our findings provide a cautionary note: genetic linkage analysis of thyroid hormones traits in mice should be studied separately in males and females.

In vivo stabilization of mutant human transthyretin in transgenic mice

Transthyretin (TTR) is a 55 kD homotetrameric serum protein transporter of retinol binding protein charged with retinol and thyroxine (T4). The highly amyloidogenic human TTR variant in which leucine at position 55 is replaced by proline (L55P TTR) is responsible for aggressive fatal amyloidosis with peripheral and autonomic neuropathy, cardiomyopathy and nephropathy. Mice bearing one or two copies of a 19.2 kB human genomic fragment containing the entire coding sequence and the known control regions of the L55P TTR transgene, failed to develop TTR amyloidosis even though their sera contained mutant human TTR. The frequency of TTR tissue deposition was increased when the L55P TTR transgene was bred onto a murine TTR-null background. Denaturation of sera from the transgenic animals and murine TTR-knockouts expressing the human L55P TTR transgene revealed that the TTR tetramer was much more stable in the presence of the murine protein because the TTR circulates as hybrid human/murine heterotetramers. Intraperitoneal administration of diflunisal, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug that binds to TTR in its T4-binding site and inhibits fibril formation in vitro, to human L55P TTR transgenic animals in which the murine TTR gene had been silenced, also stabilizes the circulating mutant protein to in vitro urea denaturation.

Role of thyroid hormones in human and laboratory animal reproductive health

The highly conserved nature of the thyroid gland and the thyroid system among mammalian species suggests it is critical to species survival. Studies show the thyroid system plays a critical role in the development of several organ systems, including the reproductive tract. Despite its highly conserved nature, the thyroid system can have widely different effects on reproduction and reproductive tract development in different species. The present review focuses on assessing the role of thyroid hormones in human reproduction and reproductive tract development and comparing it to the role of thyroid hormones in laboratory animal reproduction and reproductive tract development. The review also assesses the effects of thyroid dysfunction on reproductive tract development and function in humans and laboratory animals. Consideration of such information is important in designing, conducting, and interpreting studies to assess the potential effects of thyroid toxicants on reproduction and development.

Developmental profile of thyroid hormone distributor proteins in a marsupial, the tammar wallaby Macropus eugenii

The ontogeny of thyroxine distributor proteins in serum of the marsupial Macropus eugenii (tammar wallaby) was investigated from day 3 after birth until adulthood. The thyroxine distributor proteins in the serum of adult M. eugenii are transthyretin and albumin. Northern analysis of RNA prepared from liver showed that transthyretin mRNA levels were initially high (about adult levels at the earliest ages tested), reduced to about 60% adult levels (between days 50 and 150), and then steadily increased to adult levels (by days 200 to 250). Albumin mRNA levels were initially about 50% of adult levels (day 3) and steadily rose to 90% of adult levels by days 175 to 220. A globulin, "wallaby thyroxine-binding protein" (W-TBP), bound [(125)I]thyroxine from day 3 until about day 200. Of the protein-bound thyroxine, the proportion bound by transthyretin had a similar pattern to the transthyretin mRNA levels. From day 26 onward, about half of the protein-bound thyroxine was bound to albumin. On day 3, less than 10% was bound to W-TBP and the proportion steadily increased to a maximum of about 46% by about day 120 and then reduced to undetectable levels by around day 250. The developmentally regulated W-TBP was present throughout pouch life, when the pouch young is dependent on obtaining thyroxine required for normal growth and development from the mother. After the young tammar wallaby leaves its mother's pouch, a time when it has reached a level of physiological development approximately equivalent to that at the time of birth in precocious eutherian mammals such as cattle and sheep, W-TBP was no longer detected as a thyroxine distributor protein in serum.

Amyloid and nonfibrillar deposits in mice transgenic for wild-type human transthyretin: a possible model for senile systemic amyloidosis

The human serum protein transthyretin (TTR) is highly fibrillogenic in vitro and is the fibril precursor in both autosomal dominant (familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy [FAP] and familial amyloidotic cardiomyopathy [FAC]) and sporadic (senile systemic amyloidosis [SSA]) forms of human cardiac amyloidosis. We have produced mouse strains transgenic for either wild-type or mutant (TTRLeu55Pro) human TTR genes. Eighty-four percent of C57BI/6xDBA/2 mice older than 18 months, transgenic for the wild-type human TTR gene, develop TTR deposits that occur primarily in heart and kidney. In most of the animals, the deposits are nonfibrillar and non-Congophilic, but 20% of animals older than 18 months that bear the transgene have human TTR cardiac amyloid deposits identical to the lesions seen in SSA. Amino terminal amino acid sequence analysis and mass spectrometry of the major component extracted from amyloid and nonamyloid deposits revealed that both were intact human TTR monomers with no evidence of proteolysis or codeposition of murine TTR. This is the first instance in which the proteins from amyloid and nonfibrillar deposits in the same or syngeneic animals have been shown to be identical by sequence analysis. It is also the first time in any form of amyloidosis that nonfibrillar deposits have been shown to systematically occur temporally before the appearance of fibrils derived from the same precursor in the same tissues. These findings suggest, but do not prove, that the nonamyloid deposits represent a precursor of the fibril. The differences in the ultrastructure and binding properties of the deposits, despite the identical sizes and amino terminal amino acid sequences of the TTR and the dissociation of deposition and fibril formation, provide evidence that in vivo factors, perhaps associated with aging, impact on both systemic precursor deposition and amyloid fibril formation.

Structural and functional microheterogeneity of rat thyroxine-binding globulin during ontogenesis

Thyroxine-binding globulin (TBG), the major carrier of thyroid hormones in human and murine sera, is in the rat a developmentally regulated protein, showing a large surge during post-natal growth followed by virtual disappearance in adults. Here we study as a function of age, from the 19-day embryo to 60 days after birth, the structural and binding characteristics of rat TBG microheterogeneity. Serum obtained throughout development, when pre-incubated with 125I-thyroxine (T4), was shown by isoelectric focusing (IEF; pH range 4-5) to contain six labelled isoforms of TBG, with isoelectric points between 4.25 and 4.55. These isoforms differ in their sialic acid content. The relative labelling densities of the isoforms show age-related changes: in neonates, the bulk of T4 is bound to the most alkaline (least sialylated) TBG isoforms; then, with advancing age, it shifts to the most acidic isoforms. To understand whether this progressive transfer of ligand reflects developmental changes in the relative abundance of isoforms, we submitted sera from rats of different ages to crossed immunoelectrofocusing analysis. We demonstrate that the relative proportions of the TBG isoforms remain fairly constant, independent of the level of total TBG. The most acidic forms always represented the majority (approximately 50%), with the most alkaline ones only representing 15% of total TBG. Experiments based on IEF of charcoal-treated sera, supplemented or not with lipidic serum extracts, further demonstrate that the paradoxical low labelling seen in the neonates for the most abundant highly sialylated isoforms is due to inhibition of their binding abilities by liposoluble components, which are particularly concentrated in the sera at the earlier post-natal ages. These studies represent the first analysis of concentration versus binding functions of rat TBG isoforms in the physiological conditions of normal ontogeny. Our results point to an important influence for the serum environment on the binding properties of TBG isoforms. The physiological significance of such interactions remains to be clarified.

A senescence up-regulated protein: the rat thyroxine-binding globulin (TBG)

Thyroxine-binding globulin (TBG), the major carrier of thyroid hormones in human serum, was thought to be absent in most species, including rodents. We demonstrated recently that in fact the rat possesses a TBG gene, virtually non-expressed in young adults, but actively transcribed during post-natal development. We now find that the TBG gene is also increasingly re-expressed during senescence. Evidence is presented suggesting that physiologically decreased thyroid hormone levels, characteristic of neonates and of ageing rats, might constitute a common factor inducing up-regulation of TBG in both developmental and ageing processes. Rat TBG is to our knowledge the first biochemical 'positive' (i.e. increasing) marker of non-pathological senescence, expressed at both biosynthetic and bloodstream levels.